SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURE. 283 



that is, the ordinary Carbonate of Lime is urgently 

 required ; whereas the application of Plaster or Gyp- 

 sum (Sulphate of Lime) to that field must be useless 

 and wasteful. If such be the truth, a knowledge of 

 it would be worth millions of dollars to our farmers. 

 But I lack the scientific attainment needed to qualify 

 me for passing judgment thereon. 



There is great diversity of opinion among farmers 

 with regard to the value of Swamp Muck. One has 

 applied it to his land to good purpose ; so he holds 

 Muck, if convenient, the cheapest and best fertilizer 

 a farmer can add to his ordinary barn-yard manure ; 

 another has applied cords upon cords of Muck, and 

 says he has derived therefrom no benefit whatever. 

 Now, this contrariety of conclusion may result from 

 imperfect judgment on one side or the other, or from 

 the condition precedent of the diverse soils : one of 

 them requiring what Muck could supply, while the 

 other required something very different from that ; 

 or it may be accounted for by the fact that the Muck 

 applied in one case was of superior quality, and in 

 the other good for nothing. Where Muck is com- 

 posed almost wholly of the leaves of forest-trees 

 which, through thousands of years, have been blown 

 into a bog, or shallow pond, and there been gradually 

 transformed into a fine, black dust or earth, I do not 

 see how it can possibly be applied to an upland, es- 

 pecially a sandy or gravelly soil, without conducing 

 to the subsequent production of bounteous crops. 

 True, it may be sour when first drawn from the stag- 



